A reinforced security perimeter and dozens of followers and detractors of Donald Trump received the Republican candidate this morning before the criminal court in Lower Manhattan. Inside, the opening statements and the first testimony – from editor David Pecker – of the only criminal trial of a former president in the history of the United States have begun. Defense and prosecution have presented to the 12-member jury, chosen last week, their opposing views of the Stormy Daniels bribery case, and have begun to define their strategy for a trial that could last a month and a half. The verdict reached unanimously by these dozen anonymous New York citizens will determine whether Trump is sentenced to prison before the November presidential election.
Before entering the court, the magnate said before the cameras that this trial is part of "electoral interference." "Everyone knows it, it is very unfair," he stated, and reiterated his same words from last Monday, when the jury selection began: "This is a witch hunt with the aim of harming the opponent of the worst president in the history".
The case has to do with "a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up" with the aim of "adulterating" the 2016 elections, summarized Matthew Colangelo, one of the members of the prosecution in charge of presenting the case to the jury. Specifically, it revolves around the payment of $130,000 that Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made at the time to porn actress Stephanie Clifford – whose stage name is Stormy Daniels – to buy her silence about an extramarital relationship they had had ten years before. Subsequently, the magnate reimbursed this money to Cohen and recorded it as legal expenses of his family business.
The prosecution considers that this constituted a crime of document falsification, which assisted in the commission of another crime, against the electoral campaign financing law in New York, which aggravates the charges and makes them criminal. For its part, the defense will try to convince the jury that the relationship between Trump and Daniels never took place and that the payment – which it cannot deny, because it was recorded and because Cohen already acknowledged it in court in 2018 and was convicted of this to three years in prison – did not pursue electoral purposes, as the accusation alleges, but rather to avoid public shame for his family if Daniels said publicly that he had had sex with the tycoon.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg convinced a Manhattan grand jury a year ago to indict the former president on 34 crimes, each of which can carry up to 4 years in prison, but the maximum sentence Trump could face is 20. years, the limit for this type of crime (Class E) in the state. If convicted, the judge will likely allow her to attend his campaign events until November 5, the day he could be elected president again. If that were to happen, Trump would not be able to pardon himself, unlike the Washington and Florida cases, because this is a state case, which has not been initiated by the Justice Department of the Joe Biden administration.
Even so, the magnate maintains that this accusation, like all the others, is "politically motivated" and is part of a "witch hunt" promoted by Biden. Prosecutor Bragg ran for judicial office – which in the US is elected at the polls – for the Democratic Party in 2021, something that Trump alleges as proof of his partisanship. In several posts on Truth Social, he has attacked him and the judge handling the case, Juan Merchán, accusing them of carrying out a "corrupt persecution."
As a result of his publications on social networks, Merchán imposed a gag order on him, which prevents him from making public comments about the judicial process, an order that has been ignored, for which the prosecutor requested last week that a fine be imposed. of $1,000 for each publication or statement to the media.
The former president is obliged to attend the court in all sessions where possible while the trial lasts. In some of the sessions he could speak in his own defense, although the judge has already determined that he is not obliged to do so. In previous trials, such as that of sexual abuse and defamation of columnist Jean Carroll, he wanted to testify and his lawyers told him not to do so, as is expected to happen again in this case.
The first witness in the trial, called by the prosecution, was David Pecker, who was editor of the National Enquirer tabloid. Prosecutor Bragg wants to show that Trump and Pecker agreed in 2015, when he presented his candidacy, to a plan to boost his campaign. Part of that plan was to cover up scandals like Stormy Daniels through bribery. During the presidential campaign, Trump allegedly made another bribe, of $150,000, to Playboy model Karen McDougal, which was covered by the parent company of the National Enquirer. And prosecutor Bragg also cites a third payment of $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman to silence a story about an alleged son of the former president out of wedlock. Bragg wants to use these allegations to demonstrate that there was a bribery scheme to benefit the candidate electorally, which constituted a campaign financing crime.
Two people directly related to the bribery are also expected to testify in the coming days: Stormy Daniels, called by Trump's defense, and Michael Cohen, by the accusation. The trial cannot be televised, although journalists can attend the courtroom. Today they observed how Trump made disapproving movements with his hands and head while the accusation made his arguments. He has also turned his gaze on numerous occasions, according to the media present, towards the members of the jury, who in the coming weeks will face the pressure and responsibility of trying for the first time a former president accused of criminal charges.
This is the first of four pending criminal trials and could be the only one before the elections. In Washington, Georgia and Florida, it is managing to delay its start indefinitely through resources and other legal tools, even though they were scheduled for this year. Trump considers all of these legal proceedings to be politically motivated.
